Financial & Banking

EBRD, European Investment Advisory Hub and European Union launch programme to help businesses from south-eastern Europe, to obtain advice for sustainable growth, business-review.eu informs.
The new program is launched this Tuesday also in Bucharest committed to helping small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) obtain advice.
The programme will support at least 240 SMEs in Bulgaria, Greece and Romania with tailored business ...

UniCredit Bank and the European Investment Bank (EIB) signed a loan agreement of EUR 50 million under the European Fund for Strategic Investments (EFSI) as part of the Juncker Plan, business-review.eu informs.
The loan will be used to finance different projects by SMEs, Mid-Caps, start-ups and companies that promote employment and jobs for the young people.
“The agreement signed between the ...

Romania is one of the most active markets for initial public offerings (IPO) in Central and Eastern Europe, Chairman of the Bucharest Stock Exchange (BVB) Lucian Anghel told a news conference on Thursday. "Over the past 12 months, there have been four companies from different sectors, which shows an increased interest of both market investors and companies in listing. We have more than 30 brokers. The last 10 brokers run somewhere around 1 percent. The last ...

Romanian power distributor and supplier Electrica [BSE:EL] and investment fund Fondul Proprietatea [BSE:FP] said they agreed to extend the deadline for the buyout of the fund’s holdings in Electrica subsidiaries by a month, seenews.com reads.
The two companies have extended the Long Stop Date of the memorandum of understanding (MoU) signed in July for the buyout from the initially agreed October 31 to November 30, the companies said in statements ...

The net profit of BCR, the biggest lender in Romania controlled by Austrian Erste, fell by 51 percent to RON 559.8 million (EUR 123 million) in the first nine months of the year compared to the same period of last year, business-review.eu reads.
BCR said the fall in profits was mainly due to base effect from substantial risk provision releases and from significant gain following the sale of certain stakes in the first ...

“Erste Group posted a net profit of 987.6 million euros for the first nine months of 2017. As foreseen,this is lower than the 1,179.2 million euros we reported for the same period a year earlier, which had been positively influenced by the one-off from the sale of shares in VISA Europe. We are satisfied with our latest results, which were achieved on the back of solid lending growth of 5.6 percent, historically low risk costs at seven basis points and very healthy asset ...

BRD [BSE:BRD], Romania's third-largest bank by assets, said on Friday its consolidated net profit in the first nine months of 2017 doubled year-on-year, reaching 1.04 billion lei ($264.4 million/227 million euro), seenews.com informs.
BRD's net profit grew considerably in the nine months through September, compared to 586 million lei in the corresponding period of last year, fuelled by both dynamic commercial activity and improved risk profile, BRD, ...

The Competition Council is looking at the deal whereby OTP Bank Romania is taking over Banca Romaneasca SA from National Bank of Greece (NBG), as well as the Romanian assets pertaining to NBG's London branch and its Maltese subsidiary, the Council said in a release on Wednesday. The acquired assets represent loans and related guarantees subject to agreements between NBG's London branch and its Maltese subsidiary, respectively, and various Romanian ...

Fitch said it has assigned Euroins Romania Asigurare Reasigurare an insurer financial strength (IFS) rating of 'BB-', and Eurohold Bulgaria AD a long-term issuer default rating (IDR) of 'B', both with stable outlook, seenews.com informs.
The ratings agency has simultaneously assigned Eurohold's 200 million euro medium term note (EMTN) programme ratings of 'B'/'RR4', it said in a statement on Monday.
Euroins Romania is part of ...

Banca Transilvania said that Romania's economy will expand by 5.2% in 2017, up from a previous forecast of 4.7%, but warned about a strong divergence between overheating consumption and sluggish investments, seenews.com informs.
Banca Transilvania projects that Romania's economic growth will slow down to 4.1% in 2018, it said in its macroeconomic scenario November report.
In 2016, Romania's economy grew by 4.8% year-on-year, ...

On 31 October 2017, the National Bank of Romania (BNR) foreign exchange reserves stood at EUR 33,932 million, compared to EUR 33,320 million on 30 September 2017.
During the month, the following flows were recorded:
EUR 1,961 million worth of inflows in the form of changes in credit institutions’ foreign currency-denominated required reserves, inflows into the Ministry of Public Finance’s accounts ...

Romania needs a national programme, to be endorsed by all the political parties, for its accession to eurozone, and this needs to be an ambitious and realistic programme, National Bank of Romania (BNR) governor Mugur Isarescu said at the Conference "10th Anniversary of Romania's Accession to the European Union: from Cohesion to ...

Professor Sapir,Ladies and gentlemen,
The National Bank of Romania’s Board and I are honored to extend a warm welcome to all of our distinguished guests attending the conference this morning. Allow me to wholeheartedly welcome our speaker, Professor André Sapir. It has become quite a tradition here, at the National Bank of Romania to invite well-renowned lecturers to address the audience on important topics of the ...

Mandatory training programs for bank employees are necessary because the quality of human resources can affect the reputation and credibility of credit institutions and even create systemic risk if employee problems are generalized, central bank governor Mugur Isarescu said at a conference.
Isarescu told bank managers that they rely too heavily on internal trainings.They are neglecting joint industry programs carried out ...

Some fiscal measures announced by the authorities, such as the reduction of the taxation quota per income at 10% have a positive potential for the business environment, but there are question marks as regards the budgetary sustainability of these initiatives, according to a press release presented on Friday by the consultancy company PwC ...

Ludwik Sobolewski notified the Bucharest Stock Exchange (BVB) regarding his resignation from the position of Director General of the company, reads a notification released on the website of the share market's operator. "Bucharest Stock Exchange informs that on 27 October 2017, Ludwik Sobolewski notified the company on ...

The Bucharest Stock Exchange (BVB) has failed this year again to get promoted to the status of emerging market, romaniajournal.ro reports. BVB has failed to receive the certification of emerging market at the latest assessment decision of FTSE Russell agency, missing to reach the objective stated as such during the past two years. The main unaccomplished criterion is related to liquidity, capital.ro informs.
BVB has a total capitalisation on the main ...

Sabine Mireille Lucette Eustache De Lattre received yesterday the approval of the Financial Supervisory Authority (ASF) to take over as general director of the local insurer BRD Asigurari de Via?a, romania-insider.com infoms.
She joined the Société Générale group in 2002. She has coordinated the company’s operations in Belgrade for two years.
BRD Asigurari de Viata, owned ...

The total value of companies and households bank arrears decreased by 7.6 pct in September, down to about 12.5 billion lei, compared to the level recorded in the same month of the previous year, the National Bank of Romania (BNR) informs. Of this amount, ...

Romania's M3, the broadest gauge of the country's money supply, grew by a nominal 12.3% year-on-year to 332.3 billion lei ($84.8 billion/72.2 billion euro) in September, compared to a 11.7% rise in August, the central bank, BNR, said on Tuesday quoted by seenews.com.
On a monthly comparison basis, Romania's M3 money supply increased by 0.6% in September, BNR said in a statement.
In real terms, September M3 money supply was 10.3% ...